USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 7 > Part 25
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(VII) Sir William (2) Booth, son and heir of Sir Robert (2) Booth, of Dunham Massey, Knight, married Maude, daugh- ter of J. Dutton, Esq., of Dutton in Cheshire, who survived him and married again. Sir William Booth received of Henry VI. an annuity for services to the Crown.
(VIII) Sir George Booth, or Bothe, son of Sir William (2) Booth, married Catherine, daughter and heir of R. Mount- fort, of Bescote, in County Stafford. The Mountforts were of noble connection, bearing relationship to David, King of Scotland, and to the great family of Clin- ton. This marriage brought to Sir George Booth an "ample estate of manors and lands in the counties of Salop. Staf- ford, Warwick, Leicester, Hereford, Wilts, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall." He died in 1483.
(IX) Sir William (3) Booth, son of Sir George Booth, of Dunham Massey. mar- ried (first) Margaret, daughter and co- heir of Thomas Ashton, of Lancashire "by whom a large inheritance in Lanca- shire and Cheshire came to the family of Bothe;" she died before 1504. He then married Ellen, daughter and co-heir of Sir John Montgomery, of Kewby, in Staffordshire. Sir William Booth pos-
(V) John Booth, son of Sir Thomas (2) Booth, and his heir, was living in the time of Richard II. and Henry IV. (1377- 1413). He is styled John of Barton. He married (first) Joan, daughter of Sir Ilenry Trafford, of Trafford, in Lanca- shire, Knight, member of an ancient Eng- lish family seated in Lancashire before the Conquest. After her death, he mar- sessed various manors in Cheshire, York-
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shire and Cornwall. He died November 19, 1519, and was buried at Bowden.
(X) Sir George (2) Booth, son and heir of Sir William (3) Booth, married Elizabeth Butler, of Beausay, near War- rington, in Lancashire, whose progeni- tors had been summoned to Parliament in the reigns of Edward I. and II.
(XI) Sir George (3) Booth, eldest son and heir of Sir George (2) Booth, was born about 1515-16, and died in 1544, aged twenty-eight years. He married, in 1531, Margaret, daughter of Rowland Bulk- ley, of Benmorris (Anglesea). He mar- ried, after her death, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edmund Trafford, of Lancashire, Knight. To him, as head of one of the families of rank, came an official letter, October 12, 1529, announcing, by com- mand of Queen Jane Seymour, the birth of her son, afterward King Edward VI. It is dated on the day of his birth. This letter was preserved by Mary, Countess Dowager of Stamford (1771), as was also another from Henry VIII. to Sir George Booth, dated February 10, 1543, concern- ing the forces to be raised against the Scots. Elizabeth, wife of Sir George Booth, died in 1582. Both are buried at Trentham Church, Staffordshire.
(XII) William (4) Booth, son of Sir George (3) Booth, was but three years old when his father died, and therefore was in ward to the King. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John War- burton, of Airely, in Cheshire, Knight. He became sheriff of Chester, 1571, and was knighted, 1579. He died September, 1579, in his thirty-ninth year, and was buried at Barton. His wife died Decem- ber, 1628.
(XIII) Richard Booth, son of William (4) Booth, married a Massie, of Cogshill, in Cheshire, and died in 1628. Through him the connection of the Stratford
Booths with the family in England is es- tablished.
(The Family in America).
(I) Richard Booth, immigrant ancestor and founder of the Stratford Booths, was born in 1607. The exact date of his com- ing to New England is unknown. He is first of actual record in Stratford, Con- necticut, in a list dated about 1651. The list of the seventeen original proprietors of the town has been lost, but consider- able evidence leads to the belief that Rich- ard Booth's name was among them. The birth of a daughter to him is noted in 1641. Another curious incidental testi- mony in favor of his original proprietor- ship is a protest in 1724 (Vol. of "Town Acts," p. 102), by Ambrose Tompson, son of John, then aet. 72, and by Ebenezer Boothe, son of Richard, also aet. 72; they complain of injustice in the distribution of land, and say "Our parents, we sup- pose were either actually or virtually among some of the very first settlers of the town of Stratford, which was settled with very great difficulty and charge, as we have been informed. The expense of one of our parents for watching and ward- ing, and other charges, cost more than £40, money." Richard Booth's (or Boothe's) name appears often in the town records of his day as "townsman," or selectman, and in other commissions of trust. The prefix Mr. before his name is incontrovertible evidence that he was a man of influence and high position in the community. The title in usage in that day was applied only to gentlemen of recognized social standing. Richard Booth became the owner, through grant and purchase, of a large landed property, which he divided in his lifetime among his children. His home lot was located on Main street, on the west side, the fifth
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in order below the Bridgeport road. Like other proprietors his lands were spread over a considerable area, and were uncon- nected, a fact which seems to be more generally characteristic of Stratford than of the majority of New England towns. His name last appears on the records, in March, 1688-89, in his eighty-second year. Mr. Booth seems to have been twice mar- ried, for in 1689 he speaks of "my now wife," a phrase commonly indicative, as then used, of a second marriage. His first wife was Elizabeth; sister of Joseph Haw- ley, founder of the Hawley family of Stratford, and the first recorder or town clerk. This is another incidental proof of his being one of the original proprietors of the town.
(II) Joseph Booth (or Boothe), ances- tor of all of the name now living in the present town of Stratford, was born there in March, 1656. He became a landed proprietor in Stratford, and was one of the leading men of the town in his day. His estate was among the largest in the town. Part of the front wall of the cellar of his house still remains. Other relics are in possession of his descendants. An account book in which his business trans- actions are entered is in the possession of Mr. David B. Booth, of Putney. Several leaves at the beginning of this interesting old ledger are lost. The remaining en- tries extend from 1681 to 1703. Two or three generations of the descendants of Joseph Booth used the volume for a like purpose. Numerous debts of long stand- ing were discharged by deeds of land, which greatly increased his property, and enabled him to confer valuable farms on his children and their families. Joseph Booth occupied a position of prominence in the life and affairs of early Stratford. He married (first) Mary Wells, daughter of John Wells; (second) Hannah Willcox-
son, daughter of John Willcoxson, about 1685; she died in 1701. In 1702 he mar- ried (third) Elizabeth -, who after his death gave bonds for the management of the estate. He died in Stratford, Sep- tember 1, 1703, aged forty-six years.
(III) David Booth, son of Joseph and Hannah (Willcoxson) Booth, was born in Stratford, Connecticut, about 1698. He married (first) in June, 1727, Mrs. Anne Mills, of Windsor. About 1740 he mar- ried (second) Mary -; and shortly after his marriage removed to Roxbury, Connecticut, where he died June 21, 1773, aged seventy-four years. David Booth was a prominent resident of Trumbull, and was one of the twenty-four original members of the church formed there, May 6, 1747. His wife died November 19. 1793, aged ninety-one years.
(IV) David (2) Booth, son of David (1) and Anne (Mills) Booth, was born in October, 1733. He settled in Trumbull, Connecticut, and was prominent in civil life there. He was a large landowner, and prosperous farmer. David Booth served on the school committee of Trum- bull, and in October, 1812, represented the town in the Connecticut Legislature. He married, November 12, 1752, Prudence Edwards, who died December 21, 1782, aged sixty years. He died September 14, 1824, aged ninety-one years.
(V) Philo Booth, son of David (2) and Prudence (Edwards) Booth, was born in Trumbull, Connecticut, and resided there all his life, a prominent citizen and pros- perous farmer. He died July 31, 1819, aged sixty-one years. Philo Booth was active in public affairs in Trumbull, and in 1806 represented the town in the Con- necticut State Legislature. He married Anna -, who died March 18, 1838, aged seventy-six years. Both are buried in the Unity Burying Place.
Conn-7-12
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(VI) Eben Booth, son of Philo and Anna Booth, was a well known farmer in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for several de- cades. He was widely known and emi- nently respected in Fairfield county. Eben Booth married Sarah (Sally) Steele, member of a family long established in Connecticut; they were the parents of eight children, all daughters, who re- moved after marriage to the West.
(VII) Mancy Booth, daughter of Eben and Sarah (Steele) Booth, was born near Bridgeport, Connecticut, December 22, 1805. She became the wife of Colonel Lyman Baldwin, and shortly after her marriage removed with her husband to Auburn, New York, later going to De- troit, Michigan, where she died in 1882. Mrs. Baldwin is remembered greatly by the older generation of Detroit's citizens, as a gentlewoman of birth and breeding, who worked indefatigably beside her hus- band for the advancement of religious in- terest in the city. She was also one of the leaders among the noble Christian women of Detroit whose self-sacrificing efforts in behalf of Michigan soldiers at the front, in the hospitals, and maimed and wounded at home, are matters of his- tory.
WILLIAMS, Frederick Henry, Physician, Antiquarian, Author.
Frederick Henry Williams, M. D., was born in Pleasant Valley, Barkhamsted, Connecticut, June 12, 1846, son of Dr. Orville Williams. His mother, Minerva (Gillette) Williams, died in 1855, and his father in 1859. Left an orphan at the age of thirteen years, Dr. Williams made his own way in the world, supported himself and financed his own education. Until he was almost twenty years of age, he lived on the farm of his maternal grand-
mother. His early life was spent largely in Granby, Connecticut, but later he set- tled in Hartford in order that he might gain better educational advantages, for he had determined to enter a medical col- lege. In 1869, after two and one-half years of medical study, he suddenly lost his hearing. This was a severe blow to the young man, but he did not give up his intention to become a physician. He con- tinued his studies, and supported himself in the meantime by working in the print- ing offices and drug stores until 1874, when he received his diploma from the board of censors of the Connecticut-Bot- anico-Medical Society, chartered in 1848. In 1880 he was granted an M. D. diploma by the Connecticut-Eclectic Association. He settled in Bristol, Connecticut, in 1876, and has won high standing as a success- ful physician, particularly in chronic and obscure diseases. His practice is very large and extends throughout Western Connecticut and the Connecticut valley.
As a result of his sudden deafness in early life, he became so dependent upon his own mental resources that he soon came to be an omnivorous reader and an intense student. He speaks, reads, and writes French ; reads German and Swed- ish ; and has a knowledge of Latin. He is 'deeply versed in surface geology, anthro- pology, and archæology, and his collection of prehistoric archæological specimens is unusually fine. The results of his read- ing and study have inspired his pen, and he has contributed largely to newspapers and magazines, on medical, scientific, and other subjects. As an historical student, his attainments are unusually high, and his reading has been directed particularly to American and European history. He is a keen student of men and public af- fairs, and seldom is wrong in his estimate
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of political parties, their leaders, princi- ples, and motives.
Medicine has been only one of his many activities, for scientific study always hield a fascination for him. He has published a work, "Prehistoric Remains of the Farm- ington Valley," and has always taken a deep interest in the welfare and advance- ment of Bristol. He was one of the first to advocate the founding of the Bristol Historical Society, and he has been the town's unfailing friend. In politics, he is a Democrat, sound in his financial views, and refusing to be led away by the soph- istries of the silverites.
In literary matters he has always taken a deep interest and is himself a writer of ability. In addition to his prose writings, previously mentioned, Dr. Williams is a poet of much talent. His style is spir- ited, flowing, and graceful, and his poet- ical effusions are the delight of his friends. About seventy of his poems have been published in the Hartford "Times," and local papers, and more ambitious poems in the old "Connecticut Magazine." In debate or criticism, he wields a scathing pen if the subject discussed be handled by his opponents in a manner showing ignorance of the fundamental principles of the subject, whether political or relig- ious. His historical sketches are chiefly of a local nature and uncollected, but they show uncommon power of discernment in analyzing chronological data and prepar- ing it for popular reading. He is a mem- ber of the National Eclectic Association. (Frederick Alvin Norton, 1901.)
Dr. Williams married, in 1885, Janetta E. Hart, of Pleasant Valley, Connecticut, and they are the parents of a daughter, Frances Hart, born in 1886. Frances Hart Williams died suddenly in Septem- ber, 1909, while on a visit to her grand- mother in Winsted, Connecticut. She was
a graduate of Vassar College in 1907. She took the classical course offered by that institution, and was especially well versed in French, Latin, German, and most of all in Greek.
When the Bristol Public Library was being built, Dr. Williams was asked to contribute his archæological collection to the city. This was done, and the collec- tion is now in a separate room as the "F. H. Williams Ethnological Collection." Since the donation to the city, the collec- tion has been greatly increased. It is particularly well represented with shell artifacts from the various surface mounds of South Florida where Dr. Williams col- lected during the winters for over five years. In 1914 he was elected president of the New England Eclectic Association, but becoming very ill was unable to offi- ciate. From 1914 to 1916 he was mostly confined to his home, and as he gradually regained his health his practice was meas- urably limited to office work. When the epidemic of influenza came in September, 1918, he was gradually drawn into active practice, and he attended over four hun- dred cases of all types without a fatality. He had already had much experience in the great epidemics of 1889-90, and he found that now, as then, the old botanic remedies were potent against both the bronchial and pneumonic forms of the disease. He believes that the great mor- tality of the last epidemic was from wrong ideas of treatment and dangerous forms of drugs used. He continues all his interest in the world's doings and politics, but he cannot favor the modern ideas of so- called "democracy," so different from the conceptions of Cleveland and Tilden, whom he followed in the early days. For the last fifteen years he has been a steady opponent of Socialism wherever he could find an opportunity to publish his views.
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He has been an opponent, also, of govern- ment ownership of railroads and public utilities, on general principles. He is op- posed, also, to Prohibition as being wrong in its attack on personal liberty, and still more wrong in its false conception of the place of alcohol in medicine and the arts. Dr. Williams, since early in the seven- ties, has been a believer in the philosophy of Herbert Spencer and a follower of the conceptions of Charles Darwin. At the outbreak of the great European War he publicly declared that the object of Ger- many was to master the world and to subject it to German headship. He fav- ored the immediate entrance of the United States into the war to succor France and Belgium. During the war he never had any doubt of the outcome be- ing the triumph of liberty.
Dr. Williams has written a genealogy of his maternal descent, which will be given to the Public Library at Hartford. He will, therefore, give only a lineal synopsis of the ancestral lines in this publication. Since he has no lineal descendants he will give only a synopsis of his paternal lines. He is a great believer in the influence of heredity in moulding and changing the lives of men.
Dr. Williams had a younger brother, Frank Orville, who went in 1863 to New Milford with a cousin, by marriage, of his mother, James P. Brace, brother of Charles Loring Brace, of the New York Children's Aid Society. In 1864 Mr. Brace and Mr. Frank O. Williams went 'to Kansas, and from St. Joseph, Missouri, Frank was sent with a caravan to open a ranch where Laramie now stands in Wyoming. Beset by Indians, all was lost except the horses they were riding. Frank O. became a trapper, going over all the Rocky mountains. He was the guide and helper of the artist, Moran,
when he painted his great pictures of the Yellowstone. He was one of the pioneers of the Wyoming Territory, being in the body that formed that territory. He dis- covered copper and sold his little mine at the encampment, calling his mine the Charter Oak in memory of his native State. He was one of the two commis- sioners to the Columbian Exhibition, where the brothers met for the first time since 1864. Dr. Williams furnished the Connecticut Indian material for that ex- hibition. Frank O. Williams died in 1916 at Santa Monica, California, unmarried. Although he had no schooling to speak of, he educated himself nicely, and was said to be a forcible and convincing speaker. He was twice representative in the Wy- oming Legislature, and twice State Sen- ator, and was in the line for governor when he had a very slight shock and, as he told his brother, dropped all politics. The brothers met only once after that time, when Frank O. came East.
The ancestry of Dr. Williams, on the paternal lines, is as follows:
(I) Matthew Williams, said by Stiles to be the eldest son of Richard Williams, of Taunton, one of the earliest settlers of Wethersfield, married Susanah Cole, of Hartford.
(II) Amos Williams, married Eliza- beth
(III) Samuel Williams, married Mary Stebbins.
(IV) Amos (2) Williams, married Mary Stedman.
(V) Jesse Williams married Lois Col- lins. They moved to Sandisfield, Massa- chusetts, before the Revolution. Jesse Williams died in 1775. Mrs. Lois (Col- lins) Williams survived him, and died at the age of one hundred and four years, after the year 1844.
(VI) Jesse (2) Williams, son of Jesse
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(1) and Lois (Collins) Williams, mar- ried Juliette Whitney, daughter of llez- ekiah Whitney, at Sandisfield, Massachu- setts. They had four sons, the youngest of whom was Orville Williams, of whom further.
(VII) Orville Williams, son of Jesse (2) and Juliette (Whitney) Williams, married Minerva Gillette, of Granby.
Of the family of Jesse Williams, of the fifth and sixth generations, it is not known that any descendants live except the chil- dren of Whitney Jesse Williams, older brother of Orville, and Dr. Williams, himself. The only males living are Rus- sel Williams, son of Whitney J., and his baby son. Russel Williams lives with his mother and his sister in Winsted, Con- necticut, and his aunts live in Massachu- setts.
(The White Line).
(I) Elder John White came to Hart- ford with Elder Hooker. His son was Captain Nathaniel White, of whom fur- ther.
(II) Captain Nathaniel White, son of Elder John White, was a celebrated man in Middletown. He left money to found the first free school in the colony. He married Elizabeth
(III) Elizabeth White, daughter of Captain Nathaniel White, married Ensign John Clark, of Upper House, son of Wil- liam Clark, of Haddam.
(The Clark Line).
(I) William Clark was one of the first settlers of Haddam, and had a son, John Clark.
(II) John Clark, son of William Clark, married Elizabeth White.
(III) Captain Daniel Clark, son of John Clark, married Elizabeth Whitmore, daughter of Francis Whitmore (2) and
Hannah (Harris) Whitman, daughter of William Harris.
(In Collard Adams' "Middletown Up- per Houses" this is wrongly stated that Elizabeth was the daughter of Andrew Wetmore. By the wills in Mainwaring's Digest this is disproven and her parent- age is as shown above.)
(IV) Hannah Clark, daughter of Cap- tain Daniel Clark, named after her Grand- mother Harris, married William Sumner, of Middletown. Her son, Hezekiah Sum- ner, married Desire Higgins.
(The Sumner Line).
The Sumner line descends from Wil- liam Sumner, who came to Dorchester very early. His mother was Joan (Frank- lyn) Sumner, said to be of the same fam- ily as Benjamin Franklin. William Sum- ner married the daughter of Augustine Clement at Dorchester. Mrs. Augustine Clement was highly praised in the me- moirs of the Apostle Eliot.
A son of William, also named William Sumner, started the Middletown line. Two of the name were in the Connecticut militia as officers. Hezekiah Sumner was long ranking officer in Connecticut. Af- ter his marriage with Desire Higgins, he moved to Otis, Massachusetts, before the Revolution. His daughter, Tabitha Sum- ner, married Nathan Havens at Otis. Their daughter, Mehitable Havens, mar- ried Hezekiah Whitney, and their daugh- ter married Jesse Williams, as mentioned above. (See Williams VI).
(The Whitney Line).
The Whitney lines are given in the Whitney Genealogy of Phoenix Ingraham down to Dr. Orville Williams, father of Dr. Frederick Henry Williams. The Whitneys descend from John and Ellinor Whitney, of Lynn. The descent in this
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line is from two sons of John Whitney, and the descent is in male lines directly to Hezekiah Whitney, great-grandfather of Dr. Williams. This line carries by marriage with females the line of John Havens, of Lynn, to Mehitable Havens Whitney, also the line of Colonel George Barber, of Dedham, and Major Simon Willard, of Groton, both famous Indian fighters in Massachusetts Colonial mil- itia.
The ancestry of Dr. Williams, on the maternal side, is as follows :
(The Gillette Line).
The Gillette immigrants were early in Connecticut, and all of the name here probably descend from three brothers, who were Huguenots from the south of France. On the United States census of the year 1790, there were twenty families of Gillettes in Granby, alone, of the most of which no full records are found. The first definitely located Gillette ancestor of this line was Joseph Gillette, whose first recorded notice is in the Simsbury Records in which is written his marriage to Elizabeth Hayes in 1740. The young- est son of this family was Benoni, who was born in 1762. He enlisted at the age of sixteen and fought intermittently until the conclusion of the Revolutionary War. Benoni Gillette was a pensioner of the Revolution, and died in 1844. Joseph Gil- lette died in 1776. Benoni Gillette mar- ried, in 1786, at Glastonbury, Penelope Hubbard, who died in 1835. She was the daughter of Aaron and Dorothy (Hol- lister) Hubbard, of Glastonbury. They were the parents of thirteen children. The third of these children was Almon Gillette, born in 1790, and he married Lurana Adams, in 1812. He built a house in Bushy Hill, Granby, where most of their thirteen children were born.
These children have left heirs in most of the West and in Texas. There are none left in Connecticut except Dr. Williams. Minerva Gillette, the daughter of Almon and Lurana (Adams) Gillette, of Granby, was born in 1825, and married Orville Williams, then of Pleasant Valley, in 1845. They had two children, sons; the first was Frederick Henry, and two years later the second and last son, Frank Or- ville, was born.
(The Hayes Line).
George Hayes came from London to Granby from Windsor, Connecticut. He was a Scotchman, and settled in Granby in 1683. His first wife died childless in Windsor. He married (second) Abigail Dibble, and settled on Salmon Brook street, Granby, where he raised a large family. Samuel Hayes, the second son of George Hayes, settled in Bushy Hill, and married Elizabeth Wilcoxson, of Sims- bury, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Wilson) Wilcoxson, of Hartford. Their daughter, Elizabeth Hayes, married Jo- seph Gillette, in 1740, as mentioned above.
An elder brother of Samuel Hayes was Daniel Hayes, who was captured by the Indians just west of Salmon Brook, Granby, and was carried by the Indians to Canada. In the sixth generation he was ancestor of President Hayes. George Hayes had a daughter, Joanna, who mar- ried James Hillier, of Windsor, and her daughter, Phoebe Hillier, married Rene Cossette, an ancestor of Lurana (Adams) Gillette, wife of Almon Gillette.
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